Analysis: What BlackBerry Got Right And Wrong With BB10

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The good news: With BB10, BlackBerry showed it's still strong at delivering the kind of enterprise functionality that made its smartphones so popular with business users. The even better news: The company has upped its enterprise game with some new features that will make BB10 even harder to match in the corporate world. The previously-released BlackBerry 10 Enterprise Service is a key addition, allowing IT administrators to manage both BlackBerrys and iOS and Android devices. But there's more, like BlackBerry Balance, which allows users to create a personal profile and a work profile and seamlessly move between the two; BlackBerry Flow, for multitasking and moving from app to app; and BlackBerry Safeguard, for encrypting data and locking lost devices.

The key issue for BlackBerry will be if users and not IT departments or CIOs are impressed enough with the enterprise features to buy BB10 devices. With the advent of BYOD, the purchasing of mobile devices has been moved from the corporation to the consumer.

3. Improving Consumer Features

A big complaint about previous pre-BB10 BlackBerrys was the lack of consumer-minded features and services. Case in point: the BlackBerry App World was largely seen as inferior to other app or content stores like Apple's iTunes, Google Play and Microsoft's Windows Phone Store. But, BlackBerry revamped the entire store for BB10, which is now called BlackBerry World. In addition to an easier-to-use app and content store, BlackBerry also brought out the big guns for BB10 with virtually every major movie studio and music label supporting the platform with music, TV and movies for purchase or rental at prices similar to other content stores.

Along with BlackBerry World, the new OS also offers some alluring features for personal use, such as TimeShift for picture taking. The new feature actually takes multiple pictures of a subject before and after a user presses the shutter; once the picture is snapped, users can then scroll through the before and after images to fine-tune the image, eliminating any poorly timed, blinks.

4. Keeping The Keyboard

When Heins introduced the BlackBerry Q10, a new BB10-based device with a physical keyboard, many attendees at the launch event showered the CEO with applause. Despite the rise of the touchscreen smartphone over the last five years, many loyal BlackBerry users still prefer a physical QWERTY keypad on their phone. And the Q10 looks to satisfy many of those longtime BlackBerry customers. The phone comes with the same kind of physical keyboard as in previous devices, but the touchscreen display is now a bit larger at 3.2 inches. Given that touchscreen phones are much more popular these days, BlackBerry will probably spend more time and energy promoting the keyboard-less BlackBerry Z10. But, the company did right by its base with the Q10 and put to rest any fears that BlackBerry was leaving QWERTY behind.

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